The usage of mobile devices such as portable computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc, has during the past years increased drastically. Since the breakthrough of the Internet, more and more users are interested in connecting to other devices, networks and services, for instance corporate networks or the Internet, through their mobile devices. The primary option has often been to use a dial-up connection via a traditional modem connected to a public telephone network. Then, when using the mobile device on the road, a modem in a cellular phone has been used. However, a modem used in a circuit-switched telephone network suffers from quite a long time for establishing a connection and billing has to be based on the time connected. In addition, such dial-up connections using a cellular phone suffers from low data transfer rates.
However, with the introduction of packet based mobile telephone networks such as GPRS ad UMTS, it will be possible to introduce billing based on the amount of data transferred. Such systems also offer higher bandwidth, but requires extensive investments in infrastructure. Even though the bandwidth will increase it will not be in the vicinity of a wired network. In addition, due to the heavy investments required, costs for connection will initially be quite high.
A solution for the problem of connecting mobile devices at a moderate cost and charging for that service has been proposed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,884 “System and method for billing data grade network use on a per connection basis”. The system in U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,884 uses a concept, where users of mobile devices connect to an access point located in a strategically chosen area, such as a hotel lobby, an airport, etc. The access point acts as a publicly accessible wireless LAN. Then, the communication is forwarded by the access point via a tunneled connection to the service of interest. The tunneled connection could be any type of WAN. Thus, the access point acts as a gateway between the wireless LAN and the WAN. Then, the tunneling protocol enables collection of information about which user it was who used the connection. This information serves as a base for later billing, and the billing is on a per connection basis.
However, the solution in U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,884 is based on a fixed structure, where it is required that the access point has a connection to the service which the user wants to connect to. The solution also lacks possibilities for the operator of said access point to control the data traffic over the access point. Also, such a solution is only useful for usage in restricted areas and expansion of such a network is not feasible. In addition billing is restricted to the parties on the ends of the data tunnel.